This time I looked for a Joni Mitchell song that included march in the title or lyrics and found Tax Free. Tax Free is on Joni’s 1985 album, “Dog Eat Dog,” her 12th studio album and her 2nd album under Geffen. The album was co-written by Joni and Larry Klein, where the wiki “liner note” states, ““All lyrics are written by Mitchell; all music is composed by Mitchell, except “Fiction” and “Tax Free”, composed by Larry Klein.” Reading through material, it says that Larry played bass on her first Geffen album, “Wild Things Run Fast” (1982) and the two became romantically involved. They were married in 1982 and remained together until 1994.
Dog Eat Dog was the first (and one of the few albums) on which she plays no guitar and on which she focuses entirely on keyboards (mostly synthesizers and the Fairlight CMI sampler.)
Besides Joni and Larry, there is quite a line-up of other musicians (or spoken word artists) who contributed to the album, including Thomas Dolby, Joe Smith, Rod Steiger, Bob ‘Zyg’ Winard, Michael Landau, Steve Lukather, Larry Williams, Kazu Matsui, Wayne Shorter, Jerry Hey, Gary Grant, Vinnie Colaiuta, Alex Acuna, Michael Fisher, Michael McDonald, Don Henley, James Taylor, and Amy Holland.
Yipes, in 2020, Paste Magazine ranked “Dog Eat Dog” as #19 of Joni’s 19 studio albums, saying,
Dog Eat Dog isn’t unlistenable, but Joni’s own hand is practically unrecognizable in the music.
Tax Free
lyrics Joni Mitchell
music Larry Klein
Front rooms, back rooms
Slide into tables, crowd into bathrooms
Joke around, cheap talk
Deep talk, talk, talk, talk around the clock
Crawl home, lie down
Teeth chatter, heart pounds
I don't feel so good, I don't feel so good
Push a button to escape
Preacher on the tube crying "Lord, there's evil in this land"
Rock and roll music!
"Cast down these dope-fiends and their noisy bands"
Damn their souls!
Preacher preaching love like vengeance
Preaching love like hate
Calling for large donations
Promising estates
Rolling lawns and angel bands
Behind the pearly gates
You know he will have his in this life
But yours will have to wait
He's immaculately tax free
Multiple hundreds of thousands of
Tax free
Hundreds of millions of dollars
Tax free
A hundred billion dollars!
And who is paying the price?
Who, who
Your children are
Pissed off, jacked up
Scream into the mic, spit into the loving cup
Strut like a rooster, march like a man
God's hired hands and the devil bands packing the same grandstands
Different clothes (pot in their pockets!), different hair (sexually active!)
Raise a screaming guitar or a bible in the air
Theatre of anguish, theatre of glory
God's hired hands and the devil bands
Oh come let us adore me
Lord, there's danger in this land
You get witch hunts and wars
When church and state hold hands
(Fuck it!)
Tonight I'm going dancing
With the drag queens and the punks
Big beat deliver me
From this sanctimonious skunk
We're no flaming angels
And he's not Heaven-sent
How can he speak for the Prince of Peace
When he's hawk-right militant?
And he's immaculately tax free
Our nation has lost its guts!
Save me
Our nation has lost its strength
Tax free
Our nation has whimpered and cried
Save me
And petted the Castros
Tax free
The Khomeinis' and the Kaddafis'
Save me
For so long
Tax free
That we don't know how to act like a man
Save me
I think that we should turn the United States Marines
Loose on that little island south of Florida and
Stop that problem!
I am preachin' love, I am!
Glyn is the host of Mixed Music Bag. Glyn says:
Tao Talk 
I have to agree. This is so not the Joni Mitchell I love. I recognize her voice but that’s it!
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Dale it sure is different. Something I’ll have to listen to more to see it grows on me.
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I don’t know that it would work with me. Then again, I should try as well.
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I do not know this at all. “Joni does New Wave”… I think I’ll have to check out the entire album just because.
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Trent, this one and the previous one might hold interest for you, her first 2 at Geffen. I know the techno (right term?) aspects are probably what draw you?
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I really like (love) her works from the ’70s, which most people do, and this is so different that it intrigues me. I like a lot of 80s music, and this sort of fits in, but not 100% – it sounds like someone trying to create that sound instead of someone coming to it by innovating. So I would like to see if the rest of the album sounds that way as well or if the songs where Joni wrote the music have more of an original voice. Despite it sounding like she was attempting to get “that” sound, there is something appealing about it – as the quote said, it is not horrid and actually sounds pretty good. So the whole thing intrigues me. And as you said, maybe after listening to it all a couple of times it would grow on me.
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I appreciate your take on it now, and after if you do it.
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New to me, Lisa, and the jury is still out on this one. Interesting find.
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To me also, Nancy. I went to Joni’s site and searched her songs there.
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March was tricky, I thought.
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Me too! I didn’t want to go marching band music either. I wonder how April will be…
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Much easier! There are a lot of April song; I just compiled a list of at least 16. 😎
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:::wiping brow::: That’s a relief.
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I tried to listen to this once. I can’t disagree with that ranking but good on for matching this song.
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Randy, I’m going to try to find this album and the first one and listen. I know her Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm is not “classic” Joni either but I really like it.
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I think if you didn’t know it was Joni you might like it better. It’s an insightful commentary that still stings.
After “Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter” I had trouble with most of her music, but this sounds fresh now. Not the Joni I love, but certainly worth a listen. (K)
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K, lovely and insightful comment. Joni doesn’t need to be or want to be kept in a box. I love her Chalkmark in a Rainstorm album. So much music so little time to listen!
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Yes and yes.
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Unlike “Wild Things Run Fast,” this is the first time I heard about “Dog Eat Dog.” Based on other music by Joni Mitchell, she’s barely recognizable. That’s not to say its bad – just very different from other music by her I’ve heard. Caveat: I still need to explore the majority of her catalog.
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Christian, I have a box set of her early music and love it. This is quite a departure from it. Maybe the new label and her new husband encouraged her to stretch out into other genres?
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Well found Lisa.
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Thanks, Glyn!
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I didn’t know this one…what a different sound she had…I couldn’t have identified her singing this if you wouldn’t have posted this. It’s the eighties so no guitar…I do miss her playing because just like a few other guitar players…she has a unique way of playing like no one else.
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Agreed Max, from the cover to the sound to the instruments to the lyrics, it’s very 80s and different. IIRC she keeps a capo on her guitar, which is different but I’m sure there are other things that are different also?
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Oh…it’s her her tunings… she made a lot of them up. That is what makes her playing so unique. Keith Richards plays in open tunnings as well…that is what makes their sound different.
It’s strange not hearing her guitar because for me…it’s as much her as her voice…if that makes sense.
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It was certainly a different sound for her. I kind of liked it.
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Thanks for giving it a chance, Steve.
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My pleasure, Lisa.
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